Getsu9
by Fathskie
Summary: Hinata's got into showbiz? And she got her boyfriend's full-support! That is, before he found out whom she was partnered with. AU. NaruHina, NejiHina
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Hinata's got into showbiz? And she got her boyfriend's full-support! That is, before he found out whom she was partnered with. AU.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

-.-.-.-

PILOT EPISODE

..

I hadn't been able to stop smiling this past 15 minutes, if people saw me showering while grinning they must've thought I'm crazy. Luckily, there's only me and two kohai in the changing room so I could easily evade them. After I was done showering and picking up my things, I spent no time stalling as I ran through the dorm's hallway to my room, all the way grinning like a mad man. I couldn't wait to share the news with my bestfriend while it's hot!

Okay, so to avoid confusion, let me tell you what happened. I was just finished my usual Judo club schedule for the day when I received a phone call from my girlfriend. She was half crying and half laughing, half scared and half excited when she told me the news. She thought it was an abomination but I thought it was quite the opposite! Infact, it was the greatest news I have ever heard this whole past year!

"Yo, Sasuke!" I kicked the door open and slam it closed again, only to find my roomate was in his infamous cold-mode, staring at his desktop PC. I tentatively walked closer and looked a bit to the monitor as well.

"Sasuke, what are you doing?" I hiss in bewilderment when I saw what he watched. He was watching something in YouTube titled: _'Is It Too Late to Avoid Serious Impacts of Climate Change'_

_What? _What was that stuff he's been staring at?

"Shh." he gestured and shushed me, not once taking off his eyes from the monitor.

No no no no. I knew he was a genius and all that, but I never knew that he was paying attention to a matter of this scale. Come on now, _climate change_? That's some serious stuff!

"Nani kore? What is it?" I asked again, curiousity took over and I leaned a bit to the speaker to get a hold of the speaker—I mean presenter. And yep, as I suspected, it was in English. Fucking English! Well now, it wasn't like I _couldn't _speak English. After all, I was a college student (albeit early semesters) so of course I had some basic knowledge on that languange… But that's about it!

I blinked my eyes a few times… No way. I read the title wrong, now I realized. It has continuation. _Harvard Thinks Green?_ This stoic bastard who happened to be my closest pal was watching something Harvard-related? Why did some people have the actual brain capacity to contain all that information? Mine was going to explode soon if I keep watching all these diagrams and charts and graphs and listening to all mumbo jumbo about carbon emission. Ugghhh.

"Can you shut it off for a second?" I prompted, a bit irritated. Though what made me feel annoyed wasn't exactly clear… Was I jealous? You know – since he seemed to be able to understand that stuff, while I could barely figure out the words? Or the fact that he wasn't immediately lending his ears when I'm demanding attention? Still, as expected, I got no reply.

"Pause it? Maybe..?" I asked again.

Silence. Well, not exactly silence, because that white-haired-half-bald presenter whom I thought had to be a professor was still talking on the background.

I waited and waited… I was starting to fidget when that bastard didn't show any sign that he heard me. Finally, I sighed. Both my hands were limping on the sides of my thighs and my head fell in a desperate gesture of defeat. It's all an act, of course. Above all else, I knew Sasuke loved me—and before your imagination went haywire I must cut in and tell you that it was completely platonic.

I was right, he seemed to take pity of me. So for the last minute of uncomfortable silence, he threw several glances at me and sighed, decided to pause the video.

"You have something more important than how the increase of GDP and population, especially from China, and India, is causing an almost incontrollable increase in carbon emission throughout the world, dobe?"

"Yes! Yes! I totally have something more important than that!" I was more than eager when I grabbed his shoulder and shook them.

"What, Naruto?" he twitched a bit under my grasp, looking a bit irritated. But by gods, I knew he wasn't really mind… He loved me too much to feel annoyed just because I grab his shoulders and shake them like crazy.

"Hinata's going to be on television!" I shouted, half screaming, half laughing.

That stoic bastard of mine raised his brows, and from what I saw he couldn't contain his smirk when he responded in mild amusement, "She is?"

Now, knowing Sasuke, that simple 'she is?' meant that he wanted me to elaborate, so I did as such.

"You know, ever since last week, Ino and Sakura had been dragging her around to auditions. I think they've been to a few auditions, those three." I tilted my head and mused, trying to recall what Ino had said in her text messages when she and Sakura kidnapped my girlfriend the other days.

"They've been to a commercial audition, a singing contest, and lastly in a drama casting." I nodded in confirmation, "Oh and they all failed terribly in the singing contest, told me that eventhough all three of them was 'beautiful and gorgeous', but apparently don't have any drop of singing talent in their blood." I chuckled. "So, after a series of tests, guess what. Hinata got the role! And it's a fucking main role too!" I laughed giddily, smacking his shoulder couple of times.

Sasuke seems to ignore the slight pain I must have caused him as he continues to smirk. "And what's about it? Does your girlfriend become an actress now?"

I stared at him with eyes wide, grinning like mad when I presented him with the REAL news.

"She will be on Fuji TV's Getsu-9!" I screamed joyfully.

As indifferent and as stoic as he was, my dearest raven-haired friend still couldn't supressed his surprise to my statement. Hell, being in Fuji TV's Getsu-9 is like the highest appreciation actors and actresses might get from being in a television show! The most prestigious, the most legendary air-time, which was every Monday at 9 PM in the evening!

"But… but that… doesn't make sense…" oh awesome, now Sasuke's hesitating. I didn't think I'd live to see the day, this should be great. Hinata, my love, you've rendered the infamous Sasuke speechless!

"Well, she'll go into some kind of… 'training' first, I think. Like special acting lesson, maybe?" I told him non chalantly. It wasn't important, was it? I mean – every other instant actors/actress had to go through some kind of 'academy', hadn't they? Well true, we might get separated for a while but it would be worth it… right?

Sasuke nodded and threw his eyes to a vacant air next to him as his mind seems to be occupied by something.

"What drama she'll be staring in?" he snapped his gaze back at me.

I blinked. That little detail had escaped me when Hinata told me the news. Probably I was just too excited. That didn't matter, right? Getsu-9 dramas had always been great!

"You don't know, huh…? Then, I bet you wouldn't have any idea who her partner is?" Sasuke kept his eye contact when asking me that question. I had a feeling that he was testing my brain capacity—or my capability in general in purpose, by boring those infamous hotcold-onyx stare right to my eyes.

Would he get his confirmation if I tell him the truth…?

"Err…" I hesitantly forced out a small laugh.

Sasuke immediately rolled his eyes and shifted his chair, back into facing the computer again while fixing his sitting position. He spoke with a relatively loud voice (well, as loud as Sasuke could be), "You don't know who your girlfriend would act with, and what drama she would act in? Gosh… as expected from you…" he grumbled, his skilled fingers are already typing words in search engine. I didn't have time to tackle his insult as I was starting to see his point. What drama indeed? And who would be her co-star?

"Nani nani? What do you have?" I rushed him while invading his personal space when I leaned closer to him—I mean to the computer.

"Don't stand too close!" he snapped while clicking stuff and pressed enter.

Both of us stay in silence, interestedly and eagerly reading the words we found on the screen… as we honestly trying to grasp the meaning of this all.

_Neji Hyuuga will star in Fuji TV's Winter's rabu-rabu Getsu-9 drama, "Oshiete yo", starting this January. It's already confirmed that this drama would have a love theme with a lot of romantic scenes. The audition for the role of the Hyuuga's co-star will be hold early in October to enable the winner to receive more intensive acting training a couple months prior to shoot. Neji Hyuuga stated that he was eager and looking forward to his soon to be co-actress and was willing to give guidance to the new comer. Being one of the most popular actors in his generation, it certainly would be an honor for whoever the lead actress would be as she would be able to perform together with him in a Getsu-9 drama._

Awkward silence…

Another awkward silence…

And then Sasuke broke his record of being an ice-prince by shouting shamelessly, frantically pointing at the screen.

"Dude! Your girlfriend and her fucking _**cousin**_ are gonna star in a romantic drama together! You're so fucked up, man!"

Yeah… he just summarized my feelings completely and correctly in that single sentence.

-.-.-.-

…

A/N: have this idea nagging on my mind for the last couple weeks or so… will this be a NejiHina or NaruHina? Let my fingers take us there ^^

*)Edit: oh and… about that carbon emission, I just HAD to wrote it… I hope it caught your attention lol… it's kind of a serious issue =/


	2. Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto

-.-.-

Chapter 2

-.-.-

"Hinata! Ino! Over here!" a pink haired teenage girl shouted in excitement, waving her hand from a distance. She had to move a bit and peek over people who were standing and grouping around them while waving her hand frantically for her friends to catch on. The blond girl spotted her and waved back, a huge smile plastered on her face. Her left arm sled under the arm of a navy-haired girl she came with, and half dragging her when they ran towards the pinkette.

"Gosh! So many people!" Ino threw her glances around as the tension of the crowd had already started to affect her. Many young women seemed to be eager to participate in this drama casting; every single one of them looked both pretty and confident. Frankly, our three girls had expected no less from the competitions. Especially after they heard some rumours saying that the winner would get the chance to act together with a _seriously_ famous actor —which identity was still being kept out from the public.

Hyuuga Hinata followed her friend example and turned her head to the sides to observe the people. "A-are you sure we're entering this casting, Sakura-chan…? Ino-chan…?" she reluctantly looked around, her voice hinted with worry and doubt.

"What are you talking about? Of course we're entering! Look, I already applied for us and get us numbers!" Sakura smiled cheerfuly, handing out tags to both of her girls. "I got us number 63, 64 and 65. You're lucky I came up early, otherwise we'll get number hundred something." she scoffed jokingly.

Ino took number 63 eagerly first, followed by a hesitant Hinata, taking the last number available, which is number 65. "Thank you, Sakura! And Hinata, daijoubu, daijoubu, yo…!" she smiled, "You'll be okay! Ne, why don't you see this as a… fun youth experience to remember when you're old?" she casually suggested, the smile never left her face and now patting Hinata's shoulder.

"Also, we've already informed Naruto, right? He'll be happy if you can go out more with us and… you know, just enjoy your life…" the pinkette gave her an assuring smile and continued, "Besides, you're a college girl now, Hinata… you really should hang out more! That silly boyfriend of yours only takes you to boring malls, and rarely taking you to some _really_ fun place, doesn't he?"

"And I can swear he spends more time with that ice-prince Sasuke than he with you!" Ino cut in, her disapproval were apparent by how she rested both of her hands on her hips.

Hinata bowed her head, and whispered, "T-that can't be helped… W-we go to different college after all, and he lives in a b-boys only dormitory… A-and because of our a-assignments, we can only meet on the… w-weekend, mostly. And also… with the things in my house…" Hinata trailed of, letting her friends conclude her last sentence.

Sakura sighed. "Ever since your father was re-married, you've been treated like a maid in that house, Hinata."

Ino rolled her eyes, "Honestly! Why don't you leave the house and live with me and Sakura?"

Hinata looked at her in half longing expression and half desperation, "I-I can't leave my father… He is old and ill and… I c-can't trust him to my… s-step mother…" she broke their eye contact and suddenly looked more interested in the pattern on the floor than in her friends.

Both girls, Sakura and Ino quietly looked at eachother understandingly. They loved Hinata, they adored the little princess who was a year younger than they were, and a part of them couldn't help feeling sorry for the pretty Hyuuga. The navy-haired girl had lost her mother when she was five, and when she was eight years old, Hyuuga Hiashi had remarried with a woman from the Yamashita family. This new wife of him, Hinata's stepmother, was probably one of those evil stepmothers from storybooks made to real life. Not only her, but she brought along her daughter from her previous marriage into the family who, eventhough not as terrible as her mother, did little to none in favor of Hinata.

Sensing the sudden quiet air, Hinata quickly forced a smile and hurried both of her friends to move along to the waiting room area. "Sa-sakura-chan, Ino-chan, let's go? Probably, we can… find out more about the tests when we're inside." she suggested, putting up a fake eagerness. "Uhh… sure, Hinata-chan. Let's go?" Sakura gladly took the branch and head past them, leading the way.

-,-,-

In his make-shift office, a man in his mid thirty once again was reading through the plans on his desk. He had a red scarf wrapped around his neck that almost entirely obscured the bottom half of his face. His hair was silvery-white, with bang low on the side of his forehead, covering his left eye. He looked pretty content and serious when he heard a knock on his door.

"Come in." was his only short reply.

The door opened, revealing a man with short brown hair and large, almond-shaped, black eyes entering the room. "Everything's ready, senpai. We can start at anytime." he reported to the silver-haired man.

The man sitting on the desk was now raked his fingers through his pale hair, and nodded.

"Very well. Ah… Yamato-kun, can you give me a round up? I want to make sure that everything will go well. After all, this casting is for Fuji TV's Getsu-kyuu. We have to stand true to our reputation, can't risk any slipup."

The brown-haired man nodded and started reciting.

"Yes, senpai. We have two hundred and five candidates. Each participant has already given a script, a monologue of Shinonome Mei-chan, the character from the drama. But for the confidentiality, the name had already changed to Ami-chan. The participants have been asked to memorize the script and figuring out Mei-chan's personality from the lines we put on the monologue. After that, each participant will be entering the stage. There will be three stages respectively in three connected rooms. Each stage will take place in a room; Ebisu-san will direct the next participant to enter the room after the previous participant already proceeded to the next stage. The rooms are equipped by hidden camera and microphones from every angle to monitor their acting. The judges, who will be me, Konan-san and you Kakashi-senpai, will be observing from a nearby room where we have full control on views. I will be responsible for the first stage, Konan-san for the second stage, and you will be judging the third stage. The assessment will be based on compatibility between their acting and Mei-chan's actual personality, also to determine their sharpness to be able to connect the script with the situation at hand. Last but not least, each participant will be expected to do the casting in roughly 2 minutes in every stage, so with all the 205 participants, today's audition will take approximately 7 hours from start to finish."

Kakashi nodded.

"Very well. We shall go to the control room to start." He lifted himself up from the chair and moved towards the door.

"Oh and, Yamato?"

"Yes, senpai?"

"Did they know that this audition is for _Oshiete yo_? Did someone carelessly slip that information and spreaded it around?" Kakashi spoke carefully with an icy tone and sharp stare that would make even the mighty Yamato twitched.

The kōhai gulped and said, "Of course not, senpai. We don't want to cause commotion, and we only want the ones who are truly serious about acting… Not some scary fangirls who will go on auditions just because they want to meet Hyuuga Neji."

Kakashi's expression softened and he let out a small chuckle. "Right… the young Hyuuga is quite the charmer, isn't he?"

-,-,-

Fifteen minutes earlier.

"Let me see, let me see!" Sakura snatched a page from Ino's hand impatiently. Ignoring her antics, Ino hurriedly gave one to Hinata as she edgily read her own page.

It wasn't taking too long for their expression to change from excitement to bewilderment.

"…What is this?" Sakura whispered, blinking her eyes a few times. Ino furrowed her brows and Hinata slightly raised them as she too, felt a bit confused.

…

_Character:_

_Ami-chan, girl, 16 years old. _

_Good Traits: kind hearted, hard worker, neat, unselfish, truthful, innocent, always try to do the right thing._

_Bad traits: shy, timid, insecure, introvert._

_Please memorize below lines and figure out the way you say them. Please keep the character's personality as accurate as possible._

_~ What happened?_

_~ I'm so sorry!_

_~ Where is your mother?_

_~ I understand._

_~ Are you okay? _

_~ It's okay, you don't have to cry._

_~ Where is your house?_

_~ Let go!_

…

The blond girl with a huge "63" number on her chest was furious.

"Okay, this is NOT my first time doing drama audition and I'm sure as hell none of them was ever like this!" Ino waved away the paper in her hand in exasperation and motioned to Sakura. The pinkette frowned.

"Unlike you, Ino, I haven't been on auditions, but this sure looks… weird! What do we suppose to do with this?" she asked back.

Well, Ino didn't have to be sweating much about it because right at that time a voice rang through a loudspeaker.

"Ohayou gozaimasu! Uhh… Thank you very much for participating." A man with a headscarf and roundglasses appeared on the center of the waiting hall, holding a loudspeaker and apparently had an authority of sort. "My name is Ebisu, and I will be your coordinator for today. As you all know, you have been given a script, to which you have to memorize and act accordingly. Now, if you would, please look to the west side of this hall." He gestured one hand to the far area of the hall. The girls followed his gesture and noticed that in the side of the hall were rooms.

"Uhm… You will each go through the door, one at a time. Inside, you will be expected to act as Ami-chan, the girl in your script, given the situation you will find yourself with. I cannot tell you what you will encounter in each room, but please keep in mind that once you stepped in the room, you are no longer yourself, but try to picture Ami-chan's character with your own interpretation. Feel free to improvise with any dialog you think was best for the situation, but please also use the necessary lines on your given script."

Whispers and questions started to hum on the background as the contestants musing with confusions.

"There will be three rooms. You will find one test in each room. You have about 2 to 3 minutes max to spend in each room so please use the time as efficient as possible. The rooms were connected. After you're done with a room, that means you're done with one stage and you can proceed to the next. If you're ready to proceed, the light above the connecting door will turned from red to green. You shall enter the new door and close it. If you failed to do it or if you're stalling, you will be immediately disqualified. So please use your time wisely to convey Ami-chan's character. In the end of the day, the contestant will be narrowed down to 50."

The humming was soon enough turned into buzzing sound as the participant grew nervous. Our girls exchanged glances and they could read the uneasiness on eachother's faces.

"Okay so for the first ten candidates please follow me."

Ebisu lead the girl number 1 to 10 to the first room in the far part of the hall, and much eagerly watched the first contestant to enter.

"Oh God… what kind of stage have they prepared for us…?" Hinata heard a whisper from behind him, apparently yet another nervous contestant had found this audition somewhat unnerving. Afterall, what scared people the most is something of an unknown origin.

-.-.-

Time passed by rather slow and rather fast for the contestants. The girls were told to wait in the hall as The Production House seemed to block the way out so that the remaining participants wouldn't have contact with the contestants who already went on the test.

"It's already number 60! The next time Ebisu called more contestants, it will be our turn!" Sakura fidget nervously. As to answering to her call, Ebisu's voice was heard from the loudspeaker, instructing the next batch to get ready. Hinata grabbed Ino's arm and told her, "I… I don't think I can…"

Her friend gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Hinata-chan. We're all in this together! Right…?"

It took a few seconds for Hinata to absorb Ino's positive aura to finally nod in agreement. "Okay. We're in this together."

Sakura saw her friends standing and immediately seized Ino's arms and dragged her, "Oh come on you guys! We have a role to win!"

Seeing the light in her emerald eyes and a grin plastered in her face, Hinata couldn't help feeling a budding excitement in her stomach, and for the first time that day, she can honestly smile in all earnest.

-,-,-

"Ganbatte, Ino-pig!" Sakura whispered as Ino walked through the door, but not before she gave a quick retort, 'I know, Bilboard Brow!' to her pinkette friend.

The time passed really fast and before they knew it, Hinata was up next.

_I can't do this… I can't do this…_ she thought, already felt about to faint and all she could hear was the loud beating of her heart.

"Hyuuga Hinata. Please enter." Ebisu said curtly, marking the list on his chart and opened the door for her.

Hinata took a deep breath and clenched her fist. She took the first step through the door.

-.-.-

The room was medium large, painted with plain white color in the wall and white ceramic floor. The first thing she noticed was that there was a big Cherry blossom tree—which probably made of plastic—in the middle of the grassy area in the room. _The grass is most probably plastic too, _she thought.

The second thing that her mind registered was that the ceramic floor was dirty with falling leaves and flowers everywhere.

And the third thing she noticed was that the room was divided by some high panels, so she could not see what was on the other side of the panels. Throwing her glances in the far side of the room, she found the supposed door with a red light on top of the door. In the near wall was hanged a clock that shown four minutes passed twelve.

And that was all.

She didn't see anyone, she didn't see any clue. She just saw the tree. _A very beautiful tree…_

Hinata always loved cherry blossoms. That's fine, she can pretend this is a real cherry blossom tree, that won't be hard. Smiling, she slowly approached the tree. Her smile was getting bigger as she touched one of the branches and carefully ran her fingertips on the plastic flowers. She continued to walk closer to the trunk and go circling it a little bit.

Surprised, she found a broom right behind the trunk, hidden from her view if only she didn't approach the tree. _Of course!,_ she thought happily.

She took the broom and began sweeping the floor. She started to hum while she worked, and paying no attention to the clock or the test itself. She thought it's only appropriate to clean the room so that the next contestant could enter the room in a tidier condition.

_Clank!_

Hinata froze.

"It's unfortunate, huh…" she heard a man voice from a near distance.

"True, it's just not our luck that the girl turned out to have a boyfriend after all…" yet, she heard another voice. Hinata was afraid, she honestly thought she was all alone in the room, and now her personal space was suddenly being invaded by the two unknown men—whom she didn't dare to look at. Hinata kept her back to the source of the voice while forcing herself to keep sweeping the floor.

"Well well… what do we have here?" she could swear she heard a teasing tone from one of the men.

"A pretty girl!"

_Clank!_

Hinata could see a can beer was rolling on the floor near her feet, bumping slowly to her broom.

"Hey, you wanna hang out with us?"

Hinata still hasn't turned her face to see the men, but now she had no chance but to look up when she felt one of them grabbed her arm and forced her to turn around.

"L-let go!" she squaked, trying to free her arms from the man's grasp while squirming away.

"That's okay, you don't have to resist, we'll be good to you." said the other man, who is now standing very close to her.

"L… let me go!" she shouted in a firmer tone, using her other hand which still holding the broom to pushed the man who was holding her arm away.

She stumbled a few steps back, firmly holding her broomstick in front of her chest defendingly. She was slightly bowing her head; her face was blushing red with anger and embarassment.

A loud buzz was heard, and the men suddenly stood straight, bowed slightly and gestured her to the far wall.

Reluctantly, Hinata followed their gaze and saw that the light above the connecting door was already changed to green. _Of course! _She stared with wide eyes, realizing that these all must have been part of the test.

"Otsukare. You may go to the next stage." one of them, the taller one, said with a polite smile. The other one, the shorter one nodded and gave her encouragement. "You did well! Good luck!"

Hinata blinked a few times. It felt weird to witness how quickly the men changed their attitude. She nodded hesitatantly and realized that she was still holding the broomstick. "A… ano…"

"Just leave the broomstick to us. Go go go." The shorter men chuckled and stretched his hand to retrieve the broom. Hinata finally gave him the broom, bowed to the men and stuttered,

"T-thank you."

After two seconds fidgetting as if unsure what to do, the navy-haired girl was half-running to the door and opened it. She hesitate a bit, but after taking a deep breath she stepped one foot right to the next room.

After the girl left the room, the taller one quickly scattered the pile of leaves and flower Hinata just swept when the the shorter one picking up the beer can and helped his partner returning the room to the previous condition.

"She's the best contestant so far." he said, to which earned a nod from his friend.

"Yep. She certainly Mei-chan came to life."

-.-.-

Calming her beating heart, Hinata closed the door behind her. _It's a test, you foolish girl, don't get carried away, it's only a test!_ She kept scolding herself.

However, she has only little time to introspect, let alone inspecting the room further as she saw a little boy sat in the middle of the room holding his knee and crying (_this room is fairly bigger than the previous room,_ she made a mental note).

A hint of worry flashed on her pale eyes. With six long strides she approached the boy, kneeling in front of him and asked with a concern tone.

"Are you okay? What happened…?"

The boy continued to sniffle, "I fell… I hurted my knee…"

Hinata sighed and couldn't help feeling relieved. She knew it was just a test, but she still felt relieved nonetheless.

"It's okay, you don't have to cry… It won't be hurt for too long." She smiled, "Where's your mother?"

The boy, still sobbing, answered, "She's working. I'm alone."

Hinata frowned. "Where's your house? Can you walk…?"

"I…"

Hinata heard a sound of car approaching. _A car? Oh right… there must be a loud speaker somewhere..._

Remembering the previous stage, Hinata felt alerted when she suddenly turned her head around in anticipation.

She was right. There were three big, bulky men half-running towards her direction, all of them wearing face cover.

"Take him!" one of the men ordered the others.

One of the guys finally approached them, and one of them clearly aim for the boy she was tending to. Hinata watched in bewilderment when she saw him lifting the boy up and carried him on his shoulder.

"Come on!" the man said, already stood up and walked fast towards the far area of the room.

_I gotta save him!_ Hinata thought in panic as the kid screamed and waving his hands frantically. "Onee-chan! Help!"

Clenching both of her hands in front of her chest, she shouted. "Wait! Let him go! Release him!"

After a moment which felt like minutes—but actually only one or two seconds, Hinata ran after the men. Her expression was both scared and worried. "Wait!"

But she was too late. The men and the kid were gone behind a high panel that divided the room, just like the previous room. And she couldn't find a way to open it from her side of panel.

Frustrated, she turned her face to the direction where the kid was originally. There was a school bag there. She ran back to the spot and kneeled down, impatiently zipped the boy's bag to find any clues about his identity or where he lived. She frantically searched through the boy's belongings. Books, bento, pencil case, and finally a wallet. She took out the wallet and opened it.

A loud buzz was heard and this sound was almost reminding her of her current situation. As realization dawned on her, she threw her glance to the far connecting door. As she suspected, the light was again, green.

Hinata blinked a few times, feeling her hands were slightly trembled. She let out a small laugh and shook her head. _Silly me._

She returned the wallet to the bag and zipped it back. She stood back up, and walked with her newfound confident towards the door.

But then the door was suddenly swung open from inside that made Hinata jumped.

A woman in her mid-thirty, or so it seemed, was standing on the door, staring at her with the most furious look. The lady was wearing an expensive-looking two pieces purple dress and her hair was black and shoulder length.

"Where have you been?" she snapped.

Hinata was in shock. _What….?_ She definitely did not expect this.

"Quit stalling and come over here!" the woman shouted. Hinata twitched and bowed.

"H-hai! Sumimasen!" she answered in confusion and felt terrified. She ran towards the door, evading the lady's eyes and as the woman moved aside to make way for her, Hinata went through the door.

-.-.-

Back in the control room, a woman with blue hair smiled while watching Hinata proceeded to the next room. She removed her earphone a little bit and shouted to Kakashi who was sitting a few meters away from her,

"Kakashi-san! Watch out for number 65, she might be the one we're looking for."

Yamato, who also heard her words, cut in. "You have a keen eye, Konan-san… Yappari, number 65 is great! I approved of her. She's definitely the best contestant in stage one so far."

"And stage two." Konan smiled.

The silver-haired man smirked and nodded.

"Let see how well she plays out things in the third and final stage."

-.-.-

Hinata stopped abruptly about two meters after she ran through the door. She heard the door was being slammed closed and from the corner of her eyes, she saw the lady stomped away from the door, looking impatient and a little bit frustrated.

"Where's my purple purse?" she asked.

Hinata blinked a few times as she turned around to face the woman properly.

"Ne, Ami! I'm talking to you!" the woman flicked her hair and folded her arms on her chest, demanded answer.

_Ami…_ Hinata realized. _I'm Ami-chan right now._

She gave a quick bow. "I-I understand. I'll help you f-find your purple purse." She stuttered. She pivoted in her feet and did a quick scan on the room. It was set as a bedroom, with complete furnitures, desk and chairs, a sofa, dresser and some coffee table and a grand looking bed, completed with some decorations such as lamps and mirrors. One thing though, this room is kind of messy, with clothings all over the bed, and shoes on the floor, and scarfs and handbags even shopping bags all over the place.

Like the previous two rooms, this room also has high panels that divided a part of the room, kind of a smaller room inside the bedroom. And like the previous two rooms, Hinata had a strong feeling that there also had to be something on the other side of the panels.

She started to automatically cleaning the room, taking one handbag after the other, put them neatly on the sofa, taking the bedcover and folded it neatly. She was about to look for the other half of a green shoe on her hand when the woman snapped at her.

"I'm not asking you to clean up my room you idiot! I've been looking all over but I still can't find it! Go to the back room and look for it in there!" she motioned with her head, the direction of the high panel…. with an opening on it.

For the first time in all three stages, Hinata was needed to make an active approach. Reluctantly she put down the green shoe back on the floor, saying, "Hai." and slowly standing up. She fiddled her fingers in nervous, as if sensing the upcoming event. She kept saying to herself that this is a part of the game, and whatever needed to be done, had to be done. So she walked towards the opening on the panel, and carefully pushed it. Keeping her head down, she took a step forward and slowly peeked to her side.

Her eyes widened in shock as she witness a scene she could never forget even if her life depends on it.

A couple was doing a serious making-out on a blue sofa. The one on top was a guy with long black hair, and the one in the bottom was another guy with a shoulder-length white hair. The only way Hinata could tell that they were both guys was because both of them was shirtless. The two men seemed to felt her presence because for a moment they finally stopped kissing and spotted her.

Hinata's mouth went agape and unconsciously moved her hands to cover her mouth. Feeling dizzy from the sudden blood rush through her face, she shut her eyes and blurted, "I'm so sorry!", bowing hard and then pivoted on her feet before she flew the scene.

Back in the bedroom setting, she could hear a loud buzz, and saw that the light above the exit door was once again turned green.

The woman in the purple dress laughed kind-heartedly and approached the exit door, opened it up for her.

"Congratulation, you did really well." She smiled. "You can go from here and follow the arrow signs. Someone is waiting for you to give you further instruction."

Hinata, still flustered, and still covering her mouth with her hands, can do nothing beside nodding and bowing a little. Without even saying thanks, she flew through the door.

-.-.-

After the girl had left, the woman quickly returned the stuff Hinata just cleaned to their previous messy state.

"I wonder if your lips have bruised by now… Seeing her face, people would think you go all the way instead of just making out." she laughed while throwing the shoes and purses in all directions.

A face framed with black hair showed up from behind the panel and grinned.

"Anko-san, don't worry about us. We're pros. Right, Kimimaro?"

Another face framed with white hair showed up behind him. "Of course. Beside, our shift will end in just roughly 20 more minutes—that's 10 more kissing. I guess we can survive it."

"Damn Kakashi to call us to do petty casting work." the dark-haired guy scoffed.

"I'm not complaining if that means I could kiss you 25 times today." the white-haired guy smirked and chuckled.

Orochimaru raised his brows. "Oh?"

His partner tilted his head, choosing his words carefully. "You have this… natural talent with that tongue of yours."

Hearing this, Anko twitched and openly shivered, "Kakashi can hear you. I can hear you. Not by choice, sadly. Now go back to your station before I puke!"

The guys obediently returned back to the back room as Anko getting ready for the next participant.

-.-.-

"Obnoxious bastard…" Kakashi hissed from behind his scarf, but the glint in his eyes told that he wasn't serious with that remark.

"How was it? Number 65?" Konan took a quick glance to Kakashi, as she was still supposed to observe contestant number 66 on the screens.

For a while, the silver-haired guy didn't answer. Konan had to turn her head to make sure that the older man heard her when he responded.

"She's probably just the one we wanted… Did you see her violent blush? No one can fake a blush like that."

Still keeping her earphone, the blue-haired woman smiled slightly, "I told you, she might be just the Mei-chan we're looking for."

Kakashi nodded.

"Anyway. We still have 140 more candidates to go. Ganbatte, mina-san."

Konan and Yamato nodded in the same time.

"Osu!"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-


End file.
